chARTing The Path Forward

CHARLESTON - They're running out of wall space in Alicia Alley so chART (the Charleston Art Outdoor Initiative) is branching out.

Sunday's chARTwalk helped raise around $1,500 for future projects and supplies. One such project in the works is a new outdoor gallery at Park Circle in North Charleston, according to chART Founder Geoff Richardson. He is discussing the details of the project with North Charleston's Cultural Affairs Department.

Richardson said some of the chART artists will be collaborating on a production with the Robert Ivey Ballet and the Charleston Youth Orchestra.

The Alicia Alley gallery opened in June with 12 murals. It now plays host to 24, some complete, others in various stages in the process. There are only a few walls left in the alley, and plans have already been submitted for a huge piece on the back wall of the at 835 Savannah Hwy.

chART also orchestrated the installation of aquatic themed, wire and colored glass sculptures overhead in the alley between Mellow Mushroom and on Magnolia Road. The Initiative has several other murals planned for the walls in the alley as well, including one that will be done by a high school student who won the wall in a mural design contest.

The alley has been dubbed the Space Ocean Gallery and all the work there will have an aquatic theme, Richardson said.

The project is also gaining official nonprofit status under the umbrella of Redux Contemporary Art Center. Richardson has received an invitation to join the Redux board and he's bringing chART with him with the intent of expanding the initiative's reach and scope.

"We're going to slowly figure out where it fits, but ultimately it will be powered by them, all of the money will be officially nonprofit donations, and it will help to fund the initiative further, into taking classes into schools and educating people about public art," he said.